- Having one of the best (and BIGGEST-- not even a Starbucks' "tall" size, but big enough and delicious) café crèmes ever for 1, 45E after class on Tuesday with Lauren.
- A dog named Dinky at the café. (Seriously. Dinky. Lauren's dog's name is Wanda, which makes me think all French people give their dogs weird names.) It was a maybe two-year-old yellow lab that cozied up to me, walked around with leaves dangling in its mouth, and would run up to anyone on a nearby moped. It satisfied my "I miss having a dog around" moments perfectly.
- A dog named Dinky at the café. (Seriously. Dinky. Lauren's dog's name is Wanda, which makes me think all French people give their dogs weird names.) It was a maybe two-year-old yellow lab that cozied up to me, walked around with leaves dangling in its mouth, and would run up to anyone on a nearby moped. It satisfied my "I miss having a dog around" moments perfectly.
- Successfully giving an old woman directions to the Gare Maritime (though I had no idea where that was, so it was more like helping her read the bus map and help her realize she needed to take two buses and the tram to get there) and I remembered not to tutoye her (thank God).
- The weather (freezing cold but cloudless and sunny, like my favorite skiing weather) that somehow makes everything perfect and makes me feel like Fall is officially here.
- Deciding that routines are boring and choosing to take a different way home everyday. That means taking my bus an extra stop to get to IES, taking the tram instead of the bus, walking a different route... whatever. So worth it, because I already discovered a whole pocket of shops one block away from the way I usually walk.
- Wednesday, I took the tram with Clare. It was freeeezing out and we had to wait 7 minutes for the tram. I had been craving a pâtisserie and Clare had been dreading making herself another couscous dinner, so we stopped by a local boulangerie across the street and grabbed the necessary items. After the quick tram ride, I ate my pastry (that was prune something, because I forgot that pruneaux= prunes, and prunes = plums) while walking through the Jardin des Plantes in all of its fall color while listening to whatever random mix my four-year-old sister had set my iPod to. In a strange way, Jack Johnson was just right for the 40-degree weather and my relaxing walk home with my hands stuffed in my pea coat.
- Thursday, I bought a "maxi-pain" (which I know doesn't sound appetizing, but it just means a gigantic pain au chocolat) at a boulangerie on my walk to the tram. I would say that I felt very French, but the French don't eat on the go (except sometimes lunch, but they just sit down wherever they are for that) so neither did I... I waited three and a half hours...
- Lauren just-so-happened to get out of poli sci early so we met up at the pôle étudiant (student center) café and I finally ate my maxi pain au choc and she got coffee, then we had our usual student lunch at the RU, followed by a walk down to the Erdre river and a café crème before class. Nothing beats three hours of eating and conversation!
- Running into none other than Caroline Pappas outside of my Psychologie Cognitive class. I knew she was in Nantes, but it was crazy that she was waiting to go into the lecture hall I was coming out of! Had I not had only 30 minutes to wait for the tram, take it across town, walk to IES, and make it to my Business midterm on time (like every hellish Thursday), we would have chatted a little more, but we do have a standing lunch date that I am looking forward to!
- Beginning to recognize people. While Nantes is the sixth largest city in France, it's remarkably small-feeling: I can run into people like Caroline at the University (and Lauren happened to run into a girl she met last night, too.) Today I also walked behind a mom and daughter while heading to IES from the fac. Two and a half hours later, when I was leaving IES, I crossed paths with them again. I'm sure they have no idea who I am, but I like recognizing people and becoming just a little more familiar with my city.
- Deciding that routines are boring and choosing to take a different way home everyday. That means taking my bus an extra stop to get to IES, taking the tram instead of the bus, walking a different route... whatever. So worth it, because I already discovered a whole pocket of shops one block away from the way I usually walk.
- Wednesday, I took the tram with Clare. It was freeeezing out and we had to wait 7 minutes for the tram. I had been craving a pâtisserie and Clare had been dreading making herself another couscous dinner, so we stopped by a local boulangerie across the street and grabbed the necessary items. After the quick tram ride, I ate my pastry (that was prune something, because I forgot that pruneaux= prunes, and prunes = plums) while walking through the Jardin des Plantes in all of its fall color while listening to whatever random mix my four-year-old sister had set my iPod to. In a strange way, Jack Johnson was just right for the 40-degree weather and my relaxing walk home with my hands stuffed in my pea coat.
- Thursday, I bought a "maxi-pain" (which I know doesn't sound appetizing, but it just means a gigantic pain au chocolat) at a boulangerie on my walk to the tram. I would say that I felt very French, but the French don't eat on the go (except sometimes lunch, but they just sit down wherever they are for that) so neither did I... I waited three and a half hours...
- Lauren just-so-happened to get out of poli sci early so we met up at the pôle étudiant (student center) café and I finally ate my maxi pain au choc and she got coffee, then we had our usual student lunch at the RU, followed by a walk down to the Erdre river and a café crème before class. Nothing beats three hours of eating and conversation!
- Running into none other than Caroline Pappas outside of my Psychologie Cognitive class. I knew she was in Nantes, but it was crazy that she was waiting to go into the lecture hall I was coming out of! Had I not had only 30 minutes to wait for the tram, take it across town, walk to IES, and make it to my Business midterm on time (like every hellish Thursday), we would have chatted a little more, but we do have a standing lunch date that I am looking forward to!
- Beginning to recognize people. While Nantes is the sixth largest city in France, it's remarkably small-feeling: I can run into people like Caroline at the University (and Lauren happened to run into a girl she met last night, too.) Today I also walked behind a mom and daughter while heading to IES from the fac. Two and a half hours later, when I was leaving IES, I crossed paths with them again. I'm sure they have no idea who I am, but I like recognizing people and becoming just a little more familiar with my city.
Lowlights:
- Having a house with insulation, heating, and windows dating to 1903. This is also a highlight (because I think my house is gorgeous), but it's not so fun when the chimney man BREAKS YOUR FIREPLACE and says it won't get fixed until mid-November and it is in the 30's at night already. I also don't know how radiators work and have yet to figure out if my home's heat has actually been turned on. I don't think so. (And I'm not just saying that for emphasis; I actually don't know. The subject of the lack of heat in my house has been a daily dinner conversation, but for the moment I am loving my down comforter and hating getting out of the shower to essentially an unheated attic. Brrr.)
- Being too timid/afraid of being too touristique to take photos every opportunity I get. I want to take photos of everything here, though, because it is too beautiful to forget!
- Having a house with insulation, heating, and windows dating to 1903. This is also a highlight (because I think my house is gorgeous), but it's not so fun when the chimney man BREAKS YOUR FIREPLACE and says it won't get fixed until mid-November and it is in the 30's at night already. I also don't know how radiators work and have yet to figure out if my home's heat has actually been turned on. I don't think so. (And I'm not just saying that for emphasis; I actually don't know. The subject of the lack of heat in my house has been a daily dinner conversation, but for the moment I am loving my down comforter and hating getting out of the shower to essentially an unheated attic. Brrr.)
- Being too timid/afraid of being too touristique to take photos every opportunity I get. I want to take photos of everything here, though, because it is too beautiful to forget!
- I'm halfway done with being here. That is by far the worst one.
Nothing much planned for this weekend besides doing some shopping, hanging around Nantes, and having a good old-fashioned American breakfast-for-dinner chez Clare demain soir (at Clare's house tomorrow night).
A plus!
(Pronounced "ah ploose." It's short for "a plus tard" which means "until later"... just thought I'd clarify so no one thinks I mean A+, which I didn't even realize at first.)
---------
A couple funny stories:
- We are beginning to forget English. Yesterday at the musée, we knew what "sablier" was, but had to ask around and point to the picture in the painting for the English term. After a group of probably 5 or 6 of us kept saying, "You know, that thing that measures time... a timekeeper...", one other student finally said, "Oh. An hourglass??" Duh. Also, today, it took me about three tries before I remembered the English word "solution"; "resolution", "fixing", and "solving a problem" were as close as I could get. It could just be fatigue, of course, but after six hours of class in French, you can't blame me for inability to think in English!
- The first time we went to the Musée de Beaux Arts, my professor brought us into one room to show us some very early (13th century perhaps) paintings with gold on wood that often used to be in cathédrales. Before we moved to the room that held the art we'd be studying, she referenced something in a hallway behind her, simply saying, "Oh, and those are some of Monet's. But we're not here to see that." (!!) As in, "Oh, yeah, those are just some sketches because they needed to fill up the space." Sometimes I wonder how it's possible for French people to think like this. Is that normal??
- Last Thursday, I arrived to my Psychologie Cognitive class a little hopped up on my espresso shot. I arrived on time, but no professor had shown up, so I busied myself going through other notes while waiting. When the projector went on, I looked up, as my professor didn't normally use the projector, and a new man started to introduce himself, the class, and the bibliographie (reading list) as he mentioned this was Psychologie Différentielle. (!) Classes of different disciplines often start different weeks at the fac, and I had heard of some people at IES taking one that starts in November, so I was thinking that's what this was. I had no syllabus to check, no schedule to look at. My first thought was, "Well, whatever this is, I certainly hope it ends before 4:00 so I can run back to IES in time for Commerce (my business class)!" After I copied down the full bibliography of five recommended textbooks for the class, I realized that my Psychologie class was listed with three professors-- and this one was simply number two. After my horrible going-to-the-wrong-class incident, I have become oddly desensitized to the humiliation. It's progress.
Nothing much planned for this weekend besides doing some shopping, hanging around Nantes, and having a good old-fashioned American breakfast-for-dinner chez Clare demain soir (at Clare's house tomorrow night).
A plus!
(Pronounced "ah ploose." It's short for "a plus tard" which means "until later"... just thought I'd clarify so no one thinks I mean A+, which I didn't even realize at first.)
---------
A couple funny stories:
- We are beginning to forget English. Yesterday at the musée, we knew what "sablier" was, but had to ask around and point to the picture in the painting for the English term. After a group of probably 5 or 6 of us kept saying, "You know, that thing that measures time... a timekeeper...", one other student finally said, "Oh. An hourglass??" Duh. Also, today, it took me about three tries before I remembered the English word "solution"; "resolution", "fixing", and "solving a problem" were as close as I could get. It could just be fatigue, of course, but after six hours of class in French, you can't blame me for inability to think in English!
- The first time we went to the Musée de Beaux Arts, my professor brought us into one room to show us some very early (13th century perhaps) paintings with gold on wood that often used to be in cathédrales. Before we moved to the room that held the art we'd be studying, she referenced something in a hallway behind her, simply saying, "Oh, and those are some of Monet's. But we're not here to see that." (!!) As in, "Oh, yeah, those are just some sketches because they needed to fill up the space." Sometimes I wonder how it's possible for French people to think like this. Is that normal??
- Last Thursday, I arrived to my Psychologie Cognitive class a little hopped up on my espresso shot. I arrived on time, but no professor had shown up, so I busied myself going through other notes while waiting. When the projector went on, I looked up, as my professor didn't normally use the projector, and a new man started to introduce himself, the class, and the bibliographie (reading list) as he mentioned this was Psychologie Différentielle. (!) Classes of different disciplines often start different weeks at the fac, and I had heard of some people at IES taking one that starts in November, so I was thinking that's what this was. I had no syllabus to check, no schedule to look at. My first thought was, "Well, whatever this is, I certainly hope it ends before 4:00 so I can run back to IES in time for Commerce (my business class)!" After I copied down the full bibliography of five recommended textbooks for the class, I realized that my Psychologie class was listed with three professors-- and this one was simply number two. After my horrible going-to-the-wrong-class incident, I have become oddly desensitized to the humiliation. It's progress.
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